RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — Just one day after taking a 3-0 loss at Harding, Southern Nazarene bounced back and battled through a five-set match to pick up a huge 3-2 (22-25, 25-21, 25-23, 27-29, 16-14) win at Arkansas Tech.
 
Five players were in double figure kills for the Crimson Storm (12-8, 7-3 GAC) while Kaitlyn Vought had a near triple-double with 11 kills, nine digs and a career-high seven blocks. SNU as a team had a season-high 14 blocks as five players had at least three.
 
Bailee Turang le the team in kills with a career-high 19 while she added seven digs and a block. McKayla Benner had six blocks to go with 12 kills while Courtney Bowie had three blocks and 11 kills. McKenna Qualls also had three blocks to go with 10 kills and seven digs. Lexie Matthews also had four blocks. Elyse Berlin was just two assists short of her third 60-assist match of the year with 58. She also added 15 digs, two blocks and ac ace.
 
SNU had seven aces on the day as Abbey Bell had a team-high three. She also added 21 digs while Hannah Davis had seven. The Storm out dug the Golden Suns (15-9, 7-3 GAC) 81-69 and hit .230 (73-31-183) while holding Tech to just a .184 clip.
 
There were 32 ties and 15 lead changes total in the match and all five sets were tightly contested.
 
Neither team held a lead bigger than four in the first set when Tech used a 8-point run to come back from being down 19-15 to take a 23-19 lead and held SNU off to take the first set. The Crimson Storm answered right back though in the second set with a 7-2 run to take a 16-11 lead and kept the Golden Suns at bay to knot the match at 1-1.
 
There were 12 ties and six lead changes in the third set as no lead bigger than two was held. SNU broke a 21-21 tie with a Vought kill and a Qualls ace to lead 23-21 and got set point at 24-22 on a Turang kill. After ATU cut it to 24-23, Bowie gave SNU a 2-1 match lead with a kill.
 
The fourth set went the distance and more as Tech did not trail until late in the set. The Golden Suns jumped out to a 9-0 lead to start, but the Storm had a late charge. Down 22-14, SNU used a 5-1 run to cut it to 23-19. Tech got set point at 24-19, but the Storm rattled off six straight points to get match-point at 25-24 and had their first lead. The Storm couldn't put it away and didn't get match-point again until the fifth set. ATU broke a 27-27 tie with back-to-back kills to tie the match at 2-2 and force a fifth.
 
The fifth set played true to the first four as ATU and SNU traded five leads and tied nine times. Tech looked to be in control late at 13-10, but a Storm timeout helped cut the lead to 13-12 before the Suns had match-point at 14-12. That's when standout freshman answered the bell. After an ATU error, Turang tied it with a kill. SNU got match-point at 15-14 on an ATU error before Turang put it away with the final kill.